This invention relates to a pitless adapter and in particular to a bypass for a pitless adapter.
Pitless adapters are used in wells for removing water laterally from the casing below the frost line. Conventional pitless adapters are disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 2,689,611 issued to M. B. Martinson on Sept. 21, 1954; U.S. Pat. No. 2,841,223 issued to H. W. Maas et al on July 1, 1958; U.S. Pat. No. 3,721,296 issued to H. A. Tubbs on Mar. 20, 1973; U.S. Pat. No. 3,805,891 issued to N. A. Reinhard et al on Apr. 23, 1974 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,065 issued to H. A. Baski on Nov. 3, 1981. With each of the adapters described in these patents, water pumped up a vertical well pipe is discharged laterally through a horizontal pipe buried beneath the frost line (approximately 8 feet below ground level). The devices, which vary in complexity and efficacy, make no provision for the discharge of water from the vertical well pipe through a standard frost free hydrant at the top of the well casing above the pitless adapter.
In the past, using a conventional pitless adapter, the only manner in which water could be obtained outside of the building receiving water from the horizontal discharge pipe, was to install a frost free hydrant at some point along the discharge pipe. The hydrant is exposed to the elements of the soil when buried. Moreover, the hydrant is exposed through the drain hole intended to drain water from the hydrant to below the frost line, to all types of contamination from shallow surface water. The hydrant often becomes plugged or damaged by sand or silt washed into the hydrant through the drain hole.
The object of the present invention is to overcome the above-mentioned deficiency in conventional pitless adapters, by providing a relatively simple bypass for use with such adapters, to provide water above the pitless adapters, i.e. at the head of the well.